difficult without a Smartphone in today’s world

[Greg.]

Originally Posted by A Stuart

Colin, have you factored into your costs how you intend to get broadband without a landline? (If you were to go mobile-only)
Alastair

You don’t need a landline to go broadband only. Sure, the same wires/cables are used, but a broadband alone contract does not require a landline contract as well.

[colin.hepburn]

Originally Posted by Greg.

You don’t need a landline to go broadband only. Sure, the same wires/cables are used, but a broadband alone contract does not require a landline contract as well.

Hi Greg/Richard
Thanks sorry but I am even more confused with this now
Ok I know about buying an unlocked phone that fine.

But you lost me here when you said you don’t need a landline to go broadband-only. My broadband package as it stands is £27.00 a month for a broadband speed of 35/55mb? Unlimited Of that charge its something like £19.00 is the landline charge are you saying I can get all this for the £9.00 I don’t want a phone for broadband use
Sorry but I don’t get this if I haven’t got the landline i.e. my phone line from the wall socket how do my PCs go on Line
Thanks
Colin

[Greg.]

Hi Colin,

Sorry, not trying to confuse you. All things depend on what your service provider is willing to offer, so you need to check with them first. It should be possible to have a broadband service without a landline service. Price will be adjusted accordingly so don’t expect to suddenly be £19 better off because you’ve ditched the landline. Your change of contract will reflect the companies loss of income and in consequence, expect to pay more for the broadband service alone. Nevertheless, it should not be as much as broadband and landline together.

The other consideration is, do you need a broadband connection at all? If you buy a good package for your new mobile, you might be able to simply piggyback your PC/laptop on the back of that mobile signal. Sorry, this is something you need to talk through with your service provider. If your company has a high street presence, my advice to you is visit their shop and talk through what you need with a member of staff. Obviously I don’t know your company but I’m with three and every time I have visited them, they’ve been really helpful. It wouldn’t harm if you went into your service providers shop and simply said, ‘This is what I need, I don’t have a f***ing clue. Please sort me out.’ In my experience, reputable service providers will exactly and satisfactorily sort you out.

[colin.hepburn]

Hi Greg/All
Thanks again for trying to help me it can’t be easy I knowmy service is plus net Unlimited Fibre 35/55Mb

OK let’s see if I can give you an idea on what I have here
So two pcs one on my bench for the amp building and parts ordering etc The other pc is in the loft and is hard wired to the HD TV plus blue ray players and sat twin recorder box and are all networked up together from the rooter when it works.
I don’t use the wifi as its rubbish and all this is connected to the Hi-fi vire a dual optical switcher which also drives my headphone amp stuff

So that’s the basic set up I have to give you an idea now you can sort of see what I am doing with it so streaming Netflix /YouTube/iplayer plus some music and downloads so I need an unlimited package to run all this stuff on

The Smartphone it has to be said I do not want to buy one but it is looking incredible like I will have to at some point turning to the sim card for it if the card expires before it is used up that would just be a waste on money for me as a low call user what I would need is a sim card that I can say put a Tenner on it that would last me a couple of months

And when the card drops down to the last couple of pounds I can top it back up so that I have control of the cost I don’t want contracts that’s why I thought of that 1p a minute webpage I linked to have a look does it look a bit dodgy to you https://www.1pmobile.com/tariff-and-charges.taf

[Richard]

Hi Col,

Well it sounds like you should keep your existing broadband supplier if you're happy with them and it's working ok. No point upsetting that if it works for you. There are broadband-only deals out there but most include phone line and/or TV for not a lot more money.

You could then get a bog standard mobile phone just for phone calls and texts and PayPal and run it on a pay as you go sim. Almost any working secondhand mobile will do that job but you originally asked about a Smartphone for £150/£250 which really is a completely different animal to the text/phone mobiles of last century.

You will know how you feel about these things but really (until you buy one and commit to trying it) you will not know if it works for you or not. A smartphone does such a lot with surfing, email, text, video calls, films, you tube, music, photos, storing/viewing pdf manuals, etc etc it's not just a phone

I'd say either go cheap mobile with Pay as you go sim or get an unlocked smart phone and a monthly sim contract. With either the phone number will come with the sim and you can use either for phone calls and giving to the likes of PayPal.

[Greg.]

Well, 1pmobile looks on the face of it ok to me and if it is good, probably better value to have than the pay as you go sim only service others offer because, as you say, if you don’t use it and don’t make a top up payment, the sim account expires after a month. This is pretty typical of this service provided by the main service providers. The link you have does not include the fine print legal stuff. If you go with 1pmobile, I’d study this carefully before you sign up. It seems to me that, regardless of the credit on your sim, you will still be required to load credit (minimum £10) every four months to keep the account open. This could be a problem for you if your calls are as infrequent as you state in that you will end up being required to load credit even if you already have minutes available to you on the account. That means you might be wasting up to £20 in the 1st year and £30 yearly thereafter for, in your case, nothing. In three years you could have £80 credit with no personal requirement to use it.
The only other advice I would give about 1pmobile is never use their directory inquiries as it’s expensive and even more, never send pictures by text as that is even more expensive. With a smartphone, you can set up a WhatsApp account and send as many pictures as you like for nothing extra.

[Fred Shaw]

Hi Colin/all
I have been following this thread with interest & felt it time to add my 2 penn’orth (for what it’s worth). I have a very old smartphone (with ‘Windows’ operating system that is generally pretty poor as the number of apps available is limited to say the least) and I have pay as you go. My phone usage is minimal - probably topping-up twice a year at £5 a time. As I use it primarily to make calls & occasionally texts when travelling it suits me fine. If I were to use it for emails, data & web surfing, pay as you go would be very expensive but for emergency use and receiving the codes from PayPal and the bank it is ideal. So Colin, a cheap smartphone and pay as you go could provide an inexpensive solution to the problem you are experiencing.

Fred.

[Greg.]

Who’s your service provider, Fred? Your account sounds like just what Colin is looking for.

[colin.hepburn]

HI Fred/All
Thanks for your inputs guys
Yes, I did kinda look at the cheap phone thing similar to what you have Fred. As my call usages are low so my landline was all I needed .to have but now with all this new security code methods with the like of papal and the banks etc. Yes, it’s good that there is paying attention to the security. I am all for that but when it’s too tight the account user cant login because you can’t get a code anyway.
I just think a cheap phone would just lie around most of the time which is why I looked a buying the Smartphone similar to what has been suggested here. With a low value sim card for calls only that won't expires if it is not used... But as Greg [pointed at that could cost much more over time

And I was Thinking that way would be better value for money in the longer run maybe as I think I can still use it with my ISP provider using it with the wifi option with some apps that realty to the hifi hobby etc. So it becomes a useful tool for me or that’s what I am trying to convince myself of
We will see what happens
Thanks
Colin

[Fred Shaw]

Hi Greg,

My internet service provider is BT, & the mobile network provider is Vodafone. I am using Vodafone as it gives the best coverage in this area. I don’t use Wi-fi through the phone as, for whatever reason, the phone doesn’t want to connect. I must admit I haven’t investigated why!!

Fred